The Greek term embolos, referring to a ram, was first mentioned by the Greek poet Hipponax in the mid- to late-sixth century BC (Hipponax, fr. 29). Its use in naval combat was first described by Herodotus at the Battle of Alalia, off Corsica, around 540–535 (Herodotus, 1.166). It is unclear if both Hipponax and Herodotus are referring to the ram in its three-bladed form. Textual, iconographical, and archaeological evidence, however, indicates that the this style of ram became the standard during the Greco-Persian Wars and into the early years of the Peloponnesian War. The last author to directly mention the use of rams was Procopius at the Battle of Sena Gallica in AD 551 (De bello Gothico 8.23.31–39).
The complex nature of naval ram construction and the process of casting rams has been a matter of scholarly debate since the discovery of the Athlit ram off the coast of Israel in the 1980s. Subsequent archaeological discoveries and reexaminations of ancient texts have only added to the question of how the ancients built such intricate and superb weapons. To better understand this significant naval weapon, I proposed an experimental archaeology project to recreate a trireme-sized three-bladed waterline ram using ancient methods. From 2021 to 2023, Dr. Christopher Dostal, Glenn Grieco, and I conducted the Ancient Naval Ram Casting Project at Texas A&M University. The project's steps consisted of building the front
